as you can see i am a n00b to the board and thought i would start here.. I came over from DK.. who as i understand it some of you guys know well and know the board too.. " title="" src="graemlins/laugh.gif" /> Anyway i thought i would firstly say i like the board and think it looks great. congrats and the site rocks.

Now to the subject i have given..

I am looking to install several applications as services and have done a bit of extensive research on the web and found all these weird and wonderful apps that say they can do what i want when really they have all just turned out to be bloatware.

here is a summary of what i am trying to achieve and i would appreciate any advice or pointers in helping me achieve this.

I want to install and run ServU, WinDrop and psybnc (any guess as to why..? lol ) I want these to be installed as service's and to run in the background (not seen in task bar - task manager is not important) i have tried writing a bat file to do this using some of the usuall windows cmds and have also tried using fire daemon along with these bloatware products... so far none have worked!! Anyone have any pointers as to how to do this then please let me know (psssst - it could be worth ya while)

First of all you need Instsrv.exe is the program used to create a Windows service, and Srvany.exe is a program that allows almost any other program to run as a service. Download them HERE .

Now let's say you install the FTP program to "c:/ftpprog". Put Instsrv.exe and Srvany.exe in the directory where your program is instaled ("c:/ftpprog").

Now go to Run -> Command. CD your way untill you reach the directory where the program in installed ("cd\ftpprog").

Type "instsrv FtpProg c:\ftpprog\srvany.exe". This will create a service named FtpProg (you will get a succesfull message).

Open RegEdit (Start -> Run -> Regedit) and go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\FtpProg". Here you have to do the following :

Position yourself on FtpProg (by selecting with your mouse "FtpProg" from the left window) and in the right window hit right-click -> new -> key. Name the new key "Parameters".

In the new "Parameters" key do: right-click -> new -> String Value. Name the value "AppDirectory". Double click it and modify the Value Data field to : "c:\fold\"

right-click -> new -> String Value. Name the value "Application". Double click it and modify the Value Data field to : "c:\FtpProg\ftpprog.exe"

right-click -> new -> String Value. Name the value "AppParameters". Double click it and modify the Value Data field to : "-service"

Close RegEdit.Close the "ftpptog.exe" program is it's running.

Open up a console (Start -> Run -> Command) and type "net start FtpProg".

There you go !

If you want to remove the FtpProg service go to : Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Right-click the FtpProg service and click stop. Then to remove it type in a console "instsrv FtpProg remove".

This how to is working on my 2K professional, I don't know what OS you're running but I guess it will also work on your box.